Improvement in telegraph fire-alarms



1. B. FRANZ.

, Fire-Alarm Telegraph.

No. 92,598. Patented July 13, 1869.

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Letters Patent No. 92,598, dated July 13, 1869.

IMPROVEMENT IN TELEGRAPH FIRE-ALARMS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making par of the same.

To all whom it may cancer-12:

\ different views,

This invention relates to an apparatus for breaking the circuit of a fire-alarm telegraph, whereby an alarm is given at the engine-house, and the number of the district or box designated by the strokes of the hammer upon the bell, the same being operated by a mechanical power, whereby it becomes automatic in its movements.

Fig. 1 represents the face of the apparatus, consisting of an insulating-plate, A, provided with a metallic semicircular arc, B

The face of the arc may be plated with platina, and in it is cut a series of notches, a, which may be more or less in nu'mbeg. Said notches'are filled with rubber, or other insulating material, the purpose of which will hereafter be shown.

I) c are also notches cut in the face of the arc, and filled in like manner as the notches just referred to.

It will be observed that the notches bare three in number, and equally distant from each other, and the notches c are two in number, and cut some distance from the notches l), the purpose of which will presently be shown. Y

E is a lever, the inner end of which is secured to the spindle 1+, fig. 2, around which the spring G is coiled, and whereby it iswo'und up for operating the system of wheels or clock-work H.

Immediately below the spring, and attached to the wheel I, is a ratchet-wheel, J, with an attendant pawl,-

K, kept in engagement with the wheel by means of the spring, L.

Attached to the lever E is an arm, M, the underside of the extreme end of which is armed with a. platina point, which rests upon the face of the arc, andmoves around thereon, as the lever may be moved in either direction of the curve of the arc.

Having thus described the construction and arrangement of the apparatus,'the practical operation of the same is as follows:

N represents the binding-postv whereby the instrument is connected to the battery, and O the bindingpost, whereby it is cbnnected to the apparatus for operating the bell. Now, on turning the lever E in the direction of the arrow until the platina point 0 reaches the opposite end of the arc at f,'the point will have passed over all of the notches and intermediate spaces. At the same'time the lever will have wound up the spring and become connected with the wheel I by the pawl and ratchet. The reaction of the spring and mechanism will cause a return of the lever to the first position, which, as the point passes over the insulated notch a, the circuit is rapidly and-continuously broken as many times as there are notches, the result of which is to give repeated and successive strokes upon the bell a corresponding number of times, thereby calling the attention of those in the engine-house. The point having passed over the interval between the notches a and I), now passes the three notches, thereby breaking the circuit three times, passing over the space between I) and c, thence over the two notches c, breaking the circuit again twice, thereby sounding three times for b, and, aiter an interval, twice for 0, making thirty-two, or the number of the box, and so on for the other two arrangement of notches on the are 'or dial. 7

The Iever E is turned back in the direction of the arrow to the position shown by the dotted line 0, bringing the point back to the notches a. As the point passes over the notches b c in its passage back, the connection is made and broken so rapidly that no definite alarm is given, being only a quick succession of sounds, and not definite enough to confuse those at the engine house, and which are readily understood by the operator to denote no alarm.

It will be obvious that by H s device the alarm and the number of the box are given exactly, distinctly,

and without the possibility of-confusion, there being no especial manipulation or care required to start the alarm. All the attention and care needed are to simply turn the lever around-as above described, so that the pawl shall engage theratchet-wheel, and which'it will do only at the intervals between the numbers-thirtytwo and-at f; hence no confusion can arise in striking the numbers, as the pawl and wheel are so regulated that they cannot engage between the numbers three and two, or any other place or places than as above said.

What I claim as myimprovement, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The herein-described circuit-breaker, consisting of the insulating-plate A,'insulated notched arc B, lever E, and point 0, as constructed and arranged in conibination with the mechanism H, and operated thereby in the manner substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

J. B, FRANZ.

Witnesses W. H. Bumunen, E. E. WArrn. 

